2.0 Gender in the PRSP and its relationship to the national budget in Egypt.

2.1 A gender analysis of indicators for the key PRSP sectors.

Egypt is a medium human development country. However, 19.6% of the population was classified as poor in 2004, with 7% being considered ultra poor.

There is a remarkable uniformity among the frameworks of the previous poverty reduction strategies and plan in Egypt, which are based on the four areas considered to be key to poverty reduction (generating job opportunities, human capital, social protection, and increased access to basic services). These are the four areas to which the gender analysis was applied.

2.1.1 Social Safety net

The status of female-headed households in Egypt illustrates women's vulnerability to poverty. Female-headed households in Egypt are estimated to make up about 22% of households. Most studies on female-headed households found that employment is a mechanism for coping with household poverty and with the increasing cost of living.

This trend accompanied with an increase in the prices of food, electricity and transportation due to the reduction in subsidies led to an increase the cost of living and no poor women could afford to stay at home. Work is not to achieve self dependence but rather enforced due to economic reasons and led to role conflicting. The need for a steady flow of an income as a buttress against insecurity of unemployment and inadequate or nonexistent financial support from male partners and kin networks was a major factor pushing women to develop a variety of strategies to increase their incomes. Moreover early motherhood resulted in many women who are compelled to seek income because they have to support their children. Strategies to improve the livelihood are similar among poor classes. Strategies ranked from seeking employment, taking an extra job producing home handicrafts for sale and networking among kin and friends to obtain extra money. As most female headed households are poor and uneducated they were absorbed in the informal sector with no protection and significant wage differences (EL Solh, K. 1994).

The WB Gender Assessment Report 2003 concluded that poverty rates across male and female-headed households are fairly similar. In urban areas female-headed households experience greater poverty rates than male-headed households. In rural areas, where the bulk of poverty exists, the opposite is true. However, Women headed households tend to have different characteristics than male-headed households. Women heading households are older than males, are less likely to participate in the labor force, and are more heavily dependent on income transfers from pensions and remittances. In addition, most women heading households are illiterate, which imposes more challenge in front of them to get a good paid job. Moreover, children in these households are more likely to be illiterate and more likely to work.

It is worth mentioning that Female Headed Households in fact comprise a heterogeneous group, including: elderly widows residing in small households, supported by pensions; households supported by remittances from a male breadwinner working away from home; and female breadwinners supporting families through their own earnings, rather than income transfers. The first two groups of households are relatively well-off, while the third are often among the poorest of the poor.

Income from government pensions is the second most important source of transfer income, accounting for 19.7 and 6.8 percent of income received by poor urban and rural FHHs respectively. While FHHs are highly dependent on government pensions, they do not benefit in proportion to their numbers. Although they are highly dependent on this source of income, poor FHHs only collect 1 percent of all pension funds dispersed by the government.

Government pensions are unequally distributed for two reasons. First, men, because of their higher labor force participation rates, are twice as likely to receive government pensions. While women are less likely to have access to government pensions because of their own labor history, they do qualify for pension funds as widows, if their husbands were eligible. But survivor benefits tend to be smaller than the benefits going directly to the pensioner. In addition, since the poor are less likely to be employed in the public sector, they are not generally eligible for government pensions. As a result, the non-poor, who represent 83.3 percent of the population, receive almost 96.6 percent of government pension funds, whereas the poor receive only 3.4 percent.

2.1.2 Job Creation: Generating productive opportunities

Unemployment is estimated by 9% in 2006. Underemployment and reliance on the informal economy (often estimated at one third to one half the size of official GDP) are also major features of Egypt's economy. Government and private estimates put the number of job seekers entering the labor market annually at anywhere from 700,000 and 800,000.

[FIGURE 2.1 OMITTED]

Egypt's current employment problem is characterized by inadequate labor absorption of graduate students and under utilization of unskilled human resources. Additional problems are overstaffing in the government sector, coupled with shortages in skills, and negative implications for employees' productivity (Nassar, H. 2006). The labor force (15+) reached 30.1% of total population. In accordance to official figures females represent 28 percent of the labor force (15+). The services sector absorbs the largest share of the labor force (48.6 percent) followed by the agricultural sector (30.4 percent), then the industrial sector (21 percent). Given the fact of the limited capacity of the formal private sector in providing enough jobs, the informal sector -often estimated at one third to one half the size of official GDP- is playing an increasing role in providing employment opportunities.

Unemployment rates for women are much higher than rates for men. The overall rate of unemployment reached 11.2 percent in 2005. However, while men's unemployment rate was 7.1 percent, women's was 25.1 percent. (CAPMAS, 2006).

Unemployment among both males and females in Egypt is characterized by three significant features; young, educated, and first time job-seekers. In 2005, the majority of both males and females (about 92 percent) are between the ages of 15 and 29. The age category (20-24) faces the highest level of unemployment among both males (48.1%) and females (47.4%). Looking at the educational level, the highest two educational categories suffering from unemployment are secondary (63.7% among males and 72% among females) followed by university graduates (27.9% among males and 25.9% among females). (Annex Tables E1 and E2)

The gender analysis is therefore under 3 themes of:

* Women in MSMEs

* Women in agriculture, and

* Women in the informal sector

(a) Women in Business and SME's

The distribution of entrepreneurs from a gender perspective reflects a strong bias against women, while about one third of working men are entrepreneurs (self employed and employers); the percentage reaches 16% only among women. Women tend to concentrate in micro self employed enterprises (14%) while the ratio of women employers does not exceed 3%(table 2.1)

According to 2006 Egyptian Labor Force Survey statistics, there are some 630,000 woman-owned micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Egypt. Of the total MSE population, women make up less than 17 percent. This means that men outnumber women by a ratio of more than 5 to 1.

One of the major factors influencing the level of women's entrepreneurial activity is the low participation rate of women in the workforce, which is low in Egypt. Not being in the workforce at all means that women do not have much opportunity to gain business skills and experience or to be exposed to ideas for developing products and services to fill unmet needs or gaps in the marketplace.

Findings from a comprehensive survey of the MSE sector carried out in 2002 and 2003 by the Economic Research Forum (ERF) suggests that, compared to male-owned MSEs in Egypt, women's enterprises are started with a considerably lower level of capitalization; are more highly concentrated in the trade sector (where barriers to entry are low); more likely to have only one worker; more likely to have outside establishments in the informal sector; and less likely to be exporting. In addition, they have less access to formal technical, business management, and entrepreneurial training, business development services (BDS), and finance, coupled with a lower average level of education and higher illiteracy rate than men. In the MSE sector, only 3% of male-owned enterprises have over 10 employees, for women owned enterprises, it is less than 1%. But this means that close to 60,000 of the 630,000 women-owned MSEs are in the small enterprise category (with between 10 and 49 employees)

Women entrepreneurship in Egypt faces several challenges including limited finance, lack of assistance to product development; marketing and access to business information as main growth constraints. In addition, large and small businesses alike cite tax rates, macroeconomic as well as regulatory uncertainty and corruption as their top concerns about the business enabling environment. Both women and men identified regulatory and administrative barriers as another prohibitive factor to MSME growth. Although the laws pertaining to MSMEs are relevant to all owners, regardless of gender, the impacts of these requirements affect men differently than women because of the "traditional gender paradigm".

(a) Access to Finance. According to the Egypt GEM Assessment, women owned an estimated 10-17 percent of small businesses in 2003. Findings of the Egypt investment climate assessment (ICA) show that women have less access to finance than men, and the small number of the banks' businesswomen clients are typically micro-entrepreneurs. Only 5 percent of businesswomen had successfully accessed financial resources from commercial banks, compared to 17 percent of businessmen. Banks estimate that women account for 10-25 percent of bank clients, most of whom are microfinance clients. Some of the reasons why women face difficulties accessing finance are similar to those faced by men and are attributable to general SME issues. Yet, many issues affec business women disproportionately. There may be a cultural dimension to providing access to finance for women. For example, the Egypt ICA research showed that 100 percent of the women surveyed were asked to provide collateral when asking for a loan, while only about 80 percent of the men surveyed were asked to do so.

b) Access to Markets. Most women-owned SMEs in Egypt serve local and regional markets, and only a very small number are export-oriented. Women identified product quality, export know-how, highly bureaucratic business registration processes and export market procedures as impediments to accessing larger, more lucrative markets.

c) Access to Networks. The trend towards business networks where women-owned enterprises can collaborate on knowledge sharing, exchange of goods & services, and joint-ventures is as important for the performance of women's businesses as it is for men's. Women typically had much weaker access to networks than men because of their limited social mobility.

(d) Agriculture. Agriculture has been another focus for Egypt's job creation PRSPs. Actually, encouraging the non farm activities could act as very important outlet for job and income creation especially for women in rural areas. Nearly three quarters of Egyptian women in rural areas are engaged in agricultural activities compared to 42% among males. At the national level, while one quarter of the working males are engaged in agriculture, the percentage reaches about 46.5% among females. Moreover, the majority of women working in agriculture are unpaid workers (65% of total women working in agriculture are unpaid compared to 26% among males). For women entrepreneurs, agriculture is their major activity, about 80% of women entrepreneurs are engaged in agriculture activities (75% of women employers and 80% of self employed women Annex Tables E3a & E3b).

Obstacles that hinder active women participation in agriculture could be summarized in 3 main problems:

--Limited access to the main productive assets: land, credit, capital and information.

--Limited access to training opportunities, which include: extension services, literacy and advisory services.

--Most rural women suffer from a double burden, being engaged in several income generating activities besides their household responsibilities which comes at the expense of their health--well being and productivity.

* Women access to land: In spite of the significant women participation in agricultural activities however their access to and control of land is limited. Overall female holders represent only 5.72% of the total number of landholders in Egypt. This limited share in land ownership is also reflected in their small share in the ownership of agricultural tools, as tractors and irrigation equipments. The same pattern applies looking at animals, poultry and bee breeding where the female share does not exceed 5%. (UNIFEM & NCW, 2004)

* Access to credit: The Principal Bank of Development and Agriculture credit (PBDAC) is the main provider of agricultural credit in Egypt. Traditionally; women in rural areas are not major beneficiaries of the PBDAC. They constitute one third of the borrowers of short-term loans and 22.5% of medium-term loans. Women have a very limited share in long-term loans with only one female borrower out of 26 agricultural long-term borrowers. On the other hand, female share of the youth loans has increased reflecting an increase in the access of female youth to credit services.

* Access to agricultural information and technology: In general, it can be said that women have a limited access to the agricultural information and technology and extension services offered by the central administration of agricultural extension services (CAAES). This is because extension Services are mainly offered to the strategic crops such as: maize, cotton wheat, rice which are male dominated, while vegetables and fruits crops which represent the major female participation receive limited extension services. The extension program directed to rural women focus mainly on home economics information and skills, providing women with information on sewing, jam and pickles making, and poultry rising. The program completely ignores other women tasks related to farming and animal production. The female extension workers constitute only 3.3% of the total agricultural agents (AEAs). Even this limited number is not willing to spend much effort and time in extending agricultural information and technology to other women. In addition, the unfavorable working conditions, limited incentives, lack of means of transportation and the limited female extension mobility add to the difficulties facing this activity.

(b) Informal Sector

Informal sector is a major resort for poor uneducated labour especially women. Thus, tackling employment in the informal sector is very important when discussing PRSP.

The informal sector plays an important role in the Egyptian economy. According to CAPMAS 2005 estimates, nearly half of the working individuals (46%) work in the informal sector. Estimating the size of the informal sector though is very difficult, since it is comprised of unregistered businesses, which are not accounted for in many statistics.

The informal private sector represented the major employer for females in 2005, it absorbed about half of the working females the percentage among males is slightly less (45.9%). While the formal private sector (inside establishments) represented the second employer for males (25.2%), it came third for women employing only 10.7% of working females. From a regional perspective, the role of informal sector (outside establishments) in generating employment is much higher as it employs about two thirds of females (72%) and about two thirds of the working males (58.7%). The regional variation is much higher among females, while the informal private sector employs 9.3% of females in urban areas; the percentage reaches 72% in rural areas. The regional variation is less severe among males (28.5% in urban areas compared to 58.7% in rural areas) (Annex Table E4).

Under the various categories of job creation opportunities, women are faced with a number of constraints and are still most vulnerable in the labour market.

(i) Women as Family Workers

Females are the most vulnerable group as about one third of them is unpaid in comparison to 8.5 per cent for men. Moreover work belonging to an establishment is an indicator for socioeconomic development and for better working conditions and protection for the labor force in general by law.

(ii) Wage Discrimination

Women in manufacturing as well as agriculture occupations are performing repetitive tasks. They are located at the bottom of the hierarchy levels and rarely become supervisors. Lack of education and the inferior status in the labor market results in limited access to technical vocational and entrepreneurial training and reduce their chances to be engaged in more capital intensive industries with higher salaries. This does not reflect inequities in the setting of wages as the manufacturing sector is still dominated by public enterprises which face uniform wage setting for both sexes, but inequities in different entry jobs for sexes, different promotional chances and limited chances for vocational training as well as the resistance of females to work over hours restricted by their parents or their household requirements.

(iii) Discriminatory Employment Conditions

The Labor Force Information Project indicated that females face different kinds of discrimination such as: ill-treatment by male colleagues, directors, supervisors and employees(41.7 per cent), harassment by the public not treating women well (32.8 per cent), sexual harassment (65 percent), discrimination against women (5.4 percent), absence of transport facilities(4.7 percent), problems of young children left alone and housework(4.7 percent), requiring favors from women that are not part of their formal recognized job (2 per cent), gossip (1.3 percent) (Za'louk.M.,1991). Moreover the aforementioned study indicated also different forms of job discrimination against working women with respect to promotion, appointment, wages, bonuses, types of work, attaining high ranking posts, chances to travel abroad, favors asked of women on the job. In rural areas discrimination in wages ranks highest and the incomes followed by the type of work given to the females

2.1.3 Human Capital

(a) Education

Adult and youth female illiteracy rates are among the highest rates in the Arab region. Youth female illiteracy rate was 32.1% in 2005 compared to 21.2% for males. Adult Literacy rate among females did not exceed 57% in 2004 while at the national level; it reached 65.7% (EHDR 2005) i.e. about two fifths of Egyptian women are illiterates.

Illiterate girls identified the increasing cost of schooling (direct and indirect costs) as well as the burden of household chores as the two most important reasons why they were unable to attend school. Although the constitution guarantees that education in Egypt is free of charge, education has become more costly, for a number of reasons, in recent years. Firstly, the MOE instituted user charges as part of the cost recovery component of ERSAP. In addition, the cost of basic school supplies (clothes, books and stationary, transportation, etc.) has been rising. When poor families tend to prefer to send boys to school while keep the girls at home.

Male to Female ratio in primary enrollment in 2004 reflect a near-by close of the gender gap in the different levels of education. (Table 2.2) However, a closer look reflects geographical variation. Gender gap is still wide in Upper Egypt and frontier governorates (Table 2.3).

Vocational Training

Technical education is provided at the secondary level in government schools and at the tertiary level in two-year middle level technical institutes. Technical secondary education consists of three major specialties: commercial, agricultural and industrial. Girls are strongly represented in governmental commercial secondary education, although regional disparities are wide. Their shares are much lower in industrial and agricultural education. This is a natural consequence of some prevailing norms in the society relating this kind of education with career. In addition general education is considered the appropriate education for girls. Enrollment of relatively more males in Egypt in vocational training is a result of the division of education by sex as well as the low status of vocational education.

The Challenges facing women in technical education include:

* Conflicting roles and strong preference to stay at home after marriage.

* Occupational Segregation: There is a general consensus, that all types of jobs that require precision and patience and do not involve "heavy" labor are considered appropriate for women, while handling of heavy machinery, physically demanding work, repair and maintenance of equipment is preferably done by men.

* High staff fluctuation due to social commitment for women trainees: Employers are reluctant to invest in training of women, since working conditions and social constraints produce high fluctuation rates. This phenomenon is widespread among factories located in poor urban or in rural areas, where women have other means to supplement income

* Limited employment opportunities for graduates of technical education and high unemployment rates: Looking at the educational characteristics of the unemployed reveals that the highest two educational categories suffering from unemployment are intermediate graduates (63.7% among males and 72% among females) followed by university graduates (27.9% among males and 25.9% among females)(Annex Table E5).

(b) Health

Special care should be devoted to poor rural women and women in remote areas; nearly half women in Upper Egypt do not receive prenatal care, More than half women of frontier governorates give birth without the presence of health personnel.

2.2 A gender analysis of the macroeconomic framework

Women in developing countries in general and in Egypt in particular are considered the first victims as soon as economic changes occur. Macro-economic policies including economic structural adjustment policies concentrate mainly on the reallocation of resources as to achieve both stability and growth rather than on micro economic issues and gender differentiation. These policies are male biased as they fail to take into account the specific conditions of women and in particular in the labor market. Tthis is the result of a long term neglect of the role of gender in institutional theories about structures of internal labor markets, dual labor markets and labor market segmentation. Labor market theories were developed emphasizing the segmentation of the labor markets by race, color, religion, economic activity, age, geographical location, regulation, educational level, wage system and occupational structure. Currently more recent research has shown how the structure of the females' labor market differs from that for men. "It differs in terms of distribution by occupation, by sector as well as by work status.

In addition to gender segmentation of the labor market at the national level there is gender segmentation at the enterprise level. Men and women might have different labor market experiences within the same institutions although national labor laws treat workers in the same job category equally. "It has also been stated that workers of different gender by similar occupational characteristics might not experience similar earnings or mobility prospects at the enterprise level" (Bergman, R.1995)."

The acceptance of gender segmentation of the labor market highlights three socio-economic factors responsible for the male bias in economic policies and in structural and liberalization policies in particular (Elson, D.1991):

* The sexual division of labor. This factor implies that some kind of work is socially constituted as women's work while other kind of work is socially considered as men's work.

* The unrecognizing of unpaid work required for the process of reproduction and maintenance of human resources and the work done by women outside the house to help their husbands, especially in the agricultural sector.

* In some cases economic policies are adding to the women's responsibility within the house hold through the increase in the costs of living without adding to the resources women require to under take their responsibilities whether in the house or outside. Price liberalization policies and the rise in the cost of living accompanying structural policies in particular lead to the rise of electricity fees and kerosene prices.

Major issues under the macroeconomic framework pertain to employment namely:

1. Privatization

In general the main economic activities of the private sector in descending order of importance are services, agriculture and industry (Nathan, 2000). Privatization has a major impact on women and men. The main issue has been the loss of jobs among redundant labour in privatized companies and the need to create jobs for displaced workers. Numerous employment opportunities exist in the private sector for individuals with the right kind of skills. Other sources of employment and income are self-employment and micro-enterprise development. Both require extensive training and retaining.

To facilitate the privatization process taking place in Egypt, the Egyptian government established holding companies in 1994 to replace public sector organizations (authorities). Women make up 12% of the total work force for the 16 holding companies. 62% of women workers in the 16 holding companies are in the 16 holding agriculture and agribusiness holding companies. 42% of women workers in the 16 holding companies are in the three holding companies: spinning and weaving, cotton and international trade, and textile manufacturing.

In Egypt the Egyptian government and public firms have been the main employers of women for decades. Many of these women do not have well-defined jobs. Hence, restructuring and privatization have been expected to result in a significant initial loss of public sector jobs that are traditionally seen Moreover the relatively high proportion of females working in the private sector to total working females is a result of the increase in the engagement of females in the informal sector. This sector serves as unplanned mechanisms to absorb surplus labor force in general. For illiterate females it is the most suitable sector and for educated females it could be a resort enabling them to increase their incomes with no fixed working hours. Moreover early motherhood resulted in many women who are compelled to seek income because they have to support their children.

2. Early Retirement Scheme for Workers

An option for women to enter the private business is the early retirement program during privatization. The government has used different retirement packages as an incentive to reduce the redundant labor force in the public sector. There is no compulsory early retirement at all for any worker. On the contrary a great number have welcomed this scheme, and especially the use of early retirement as a means for restructuring companies to move them from loss to profit according to economic principles, particularly given that this scheme is applied only to companies in difficulty.

Empirical studies indicate that women employees are more willing to take advantage of early retirement incentives than men. Many factors contributed to this fact such as the eligibility age for women, which is lower than men', the prevailing social norms, conflicting roles of women, relatively worse working conditions in the private sector, the need for the retirement payment to satisfy a family. However, women who receive early retirement benefits are usually unable to start their own business, because they did not take any business or managerial training. Market knowledge is still missing as well as information on market needs.

Leaving work according to the optional early retirement scheme may deprive the worker of several benefits namely:

* Deprivation of women workers of free medical treatment.

* Deprivation of women workers of the value of the meal provided by some enterprises.

* Deprivation of women workers of a share in profits and incentives which otherwise would have been paid to them.

* Proportional loss of the value of variable wages they would receive if they were to remain in service until age 60.

* Loss of the period for calculating the pension from the age of early retirement to age 60 due to the shorter period of service.

Some privatized enterprises have already applied the optional yearly retirement scheme, with negative results for women. In most companies surveyed it was found that the percentage of women, who retired according to the scheme was higher than the percentage of men who made an early retirement.

The Egyptian Administration Reform Program

Depending on the Prime Ministerial Decree No. 187 of 2000 to achieve efficiency amongst the personnel of the government system in the framework of the administrative reform, it was stated. "A working woman may apply to work for half of the official working days to be calculated on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. It should be taken into consideration, however, that the calculation unit for salary and other benefits for women workers is "one month".

The woman worker obtains in addition to her legal salary, half of the collective incentives, bonuses and outstanding efforts allowances, which are obtained by her colleagues, excluding additional payments for overtime. In all cases the calculation unit for salary and other benefits for women workers is "one month".

It has been stated in a previous study (Okeil,A,1999) that this might end with the discrimination against the presence of working women within the state administrative system, of which the government service sector represents the major part. This scheme will lead to downgrading of the status of women as those in this sector need development in skills to upgrade their status. Already the percentage of women in top management posts in the government sector does not exceed 16% of the total number of such posts. With the application of the half time scheme women will be always kept in lower grades and the gender gap in top managerial jobs will never be eliminated.

3. Gender Segmentation of the Egyptian Labor Market

The visible improvement in females' participation in the labor market masks a fundamental reality: socioeconomic conditions continue to restrict women's participation in the economy, limit their mobility and ignore the negative effects of the economic policies on women, growing unemployment, declining real wages, unsatisfactory working conditions in the private sector, persistent occupational segregation, discrimination in promotional procedures, duality in role performance as well as underestimation of their contribution in the labor market. All these factors intensify the negative effects of ERSAP on women in the labor market.

As already noted, women are squeezed in a limited number of occupations in the lower as well as the highest level of the occupational ladder. More than two fifths of the employed females are working as agricultural workers (44%), about 22.4 % as professionals, managers and 14.3 % in technical occupations and only 1.2 percent as production workers and 4.3 percent as sales workers.

communication sectors are relatively more than the similar figures for females. No doubt women in the formal service sector are facing the consequences of restructuring polices, while they are not equipped with the talents needed for the promising new occupations in the service sector in finance and tourism.

This kind of occupational segregation is a result of what we refer to as sexual division of work. The gender bias in the labor market is reflected on the specific occupations in which females are engaged, which are best suited to their social and reproductive role in the society. Females do not penetrate economic activities designed for men such as construction and mining. They are usually assigned to inferior or secondary roles as clericals.

There is currently gender biased professionalism in Egypt. Some professional occupations are dominated by females. Social services, teaching, nursing and medical services employ women more than other fields. Females' graduates are estimated by almost 60 percent of the graduates of faculties of medicine pharmacy and dentistry (Nassar, H. 2004).

In the manufacturing sector women still constitute a limited share. (4% for females vis-a-vis 13% for males) This might be also explained by their low representation in vocational educational. Women working in manufacturing are concentrated in labor intensive industries such as textiles and garments; food processing and pharmaceutical .The service sector is the destination for a significant share of females. However their absorption in the different service occupations is different.

Hence due to the absence of the principle of equal opportunities for men and women, women tend usually to work in the clerical and administrative work, which is already saturated. These activities are the most vulnerable occupations when privatization is implemented and excluded.

Finally although unemployment is a common problem affecting every individual member of the society, who needs and is able to work, its impact on women is more intensive due to the fact that women are more vulnerable in the labor market. This could be a result of a gender bias in the search of jobs in the labor market. One of the field surveys quoted a man saying: "No woman will be employed and her husband does not find a job, he should replace her" (El Masry, S.1993).

In another interesting quotation it was mentioned "Egyptian women have become the redundant bargaining chip in the political triangle involving their rights, state policies, and the pressure of conservative elements who blame working women for the country's unemployment problems" (Peter, C.1995).

The duration of the unemployment is longer for females than for males. It reaches three years and above for 43.1 percent for the unemployed females and 36.4 percent for unemployed males, while it is less than 12 months for 20.9 percent of the females and 28.1 percent of the unemployed males. This reflects the continuum of female's work that can be interrupted for years by maternity responsibilities. It also indicates the impact of the dual role of females on their status in the labor market. Females might be enforced to leave their jobs to undertake their families responsibilities, which is not the case for men.

However due to the tight conditions of the labor market as well as privatization the reentry in the labor market becomes a difficult task and in particular for females who were working in the public sector and have now to face the competitive conditions of work in the private sector while their responsibilities at home increased with getting children. Employers are more likely to offer jobs for males rather than for females due to the extensive maternity leaves granted for females. Another problem is that the length of unemployment might affect the accumulation of talents so that a female who stayed at home for five years to raise her children will be an inefficient worker in the labor market.

4. Labor Laws and Representation of Women in the Egyptian Trade Union.

Despite the fact that the Egyptian labor law is equitable and favorable to women it might lead to unfavorable employers perceptions against women's work in particular for the private investor.

First: Women are expensive workers for employers. This is due to the law that provides for maternity leaves, child care centers and nursing breaks in the government and public sector. "Women workers are entitled to three months paid maternity leave and up to two years unpaid maternity leave available up to three times" (New Labor Law, 2004). Though it is in favor for women it may lead to discrimination against women in the labor market. Employers are opposing lengthy maternity leaves. In our analysis for job advertisement we found that 64 percent of the private sector' advertisement in May 2004 was for males (AL Ahram, May2004).

Second: "the new Labor Law also requires employers having 100 or more female employees to set up a nursery close to the workshops far from noise, pollution, wastes and to allow for breastfeeding twice a day for not less than one half hour" (New Labor Law, 2004).

Third: Labor legislation protects women from hazardous work as well as night work. Even when nights are allowed like in the tourism sector, the law requires providing transportation for women after 8 p.m. This law excludes tourism and health related activities but requires the jobs to provide them with transportation (Labor Law, 2004).

However the data show that implementation is lagging behind regulations. Females that enjoy the service of transportation in their work do not exceed 17.3 percent, 68.1 percent and 9.4 percent in the government, public and private sectors, respectively,.

Fourth: Moreover the new employment law has given the right for collective negotiation to workers. Women as minority in trade unions are in less favorite position in this case. Women representation in trade unions is still limited to ordinary positions and to working females in the formal sector. Female officers are represented in all 23 unions of the Trade Union Federation. However they constitute 3.4 percent from all officers.

Moreover trade union representation is not even available for most women for domestic servants, for women traders or generally for women operating in the informal sector. There are no associations of women workers taking care of females in the informal and agricultural sectors.(Moghadam,V.1995)

2.3 Mainstreaming gender into the PRSP

Egypt still suffers from substantial gender gaps, inspite of improvements in the education and health profiles of women. The socio-economic development plan, therefore has embraced mainstreaming gender in the development plan. This was done(6) at three stages:

* Markaz Program: This stage covered 179 markaz and 54 districts, about 732 individuals, members from women associations, planning directors at the level of the governorates as well as the NCW members. About 233 plans at the level of markaz was established based on the real needs of women at the loca level.

* Governorate Program: This stage aimed at establishing a plan aiming at targeting women needs at the level of governorate, then mainstreaming these plans into the governorates' plans. This stage released 27 plans that contain specific programs and projects and allocated funds targeting women needs at the level of governorate.

* Mainstreaming the governorate plans targeting women empowerment into the socio-economic development plan: Coordination and consultation with the different ministries to ensure the economic and social validity of the proposed projects; then mainstreaming these plans into the national plan and allocating the required funds to achieve it. The Governorates' plans contained several major projects targeting: education, health, environment and poverty eradication, economic empowerment, Information technology, tourism and social service

2.3.1 Achievements of gender mainstreaming into the PRSP

There are budgetary allocations to sectors that will address gender concerns (table 2.5). Total investments allocated in the national plan concerning women empowerment reaches 963 million L.E.; Lower Egypt absorbs 38% of these investments followed by Upper Egypt (31%), frontier governorates (22%) then metropolitan governorates (9%). Health projects absorb 35 % of the investments followed by Education (34%), poverty eradication and economic empowerment (13%), environment (11%) and social care (7%).

Women Empowerment component in the sixth socio-economic development plan 2007/2008-2011/2012)

The socio economic plan has adopted series of policies aiming at empowering women and achieving gender equality. These policies are:

* Enhancing the role of NGOs in eradicating all forms of discrimination and violence against women.

* Introducing incentives aiming at narrowing the gender gap in primary enrolment, increasing the rate of primary education completion, removing all forms of gender discrimination in the school curricula as well as reorienting the training programs for teachers and principals.

* Broadening women opportunities in the formal private sector through enduring the cost of the legal privileges endowed to mother workers in the formal private sector in addition to guaranteeing the social insurance for female workers in the informal sector.

* Generating 600 thousand jobs for women over the next ten years, in the context of the civil society organizations activities especially in the area of pre school education, health, and social work.

* Constructing nurseries for the children of poor working mothers, enhancing their chance in getting credit as well as equal promotion opportunities in sectors such as social services and nursing.

* Facilitating legal procedures for women in issues such as divorce and custody in addition to protecting their legal rights in inheritance and property.

* Enhancing the political participation and representation of women through public awareness programs, and providing support to women candidates programs in elections.

* Providing Health care services for women and fighting the negative traditions against women getting medical treatment.

* Empowering women regarding family planning and reproductive issues through public awareness programs as well as enhancing women access to family planning methods easily and for free.

In addition, the socio-economic development plan embraced series of policies targeting women in SMEs.

* Enhancing the role of the Social Fund For Development: Enhancing women access to credit offered by the fund through mainstreaming gender in the different fund programs as well as increasing the role of the gender unit in the fund.

* Enhancing the role of the Ministry of Social Solidarity: through activating the role of the productive families program in generating income and fighting poverty.

The productive families program offers various services; training services, providing inputs such as the raw materials and equipments, loans, marketing services through the permanent, temporary and seasonal displays, as well as technical services.

* Enhancing the role of the NGOs in providing loans to women; NGOs are considered an important tool in promoting SMEs as they are closer to the targeted groups.

2.4: Findings and recommendations

2.4.1 Findings

First :Successful poverty alleviation programs would entail improving women's access to safety net programs. In order to strengthen existing programs, future policy dialogue should consider the following approaches:

* Design a variety of poverty programs that can address the various reasons why families and individuals are poor. As an example, geographical targeting may be necessary to address high poverty rates in Upper Egypt.

* Ensure women's physical, legal, and bureaucratic access to existing and future poverty alleviation programs. This may involve reorienting individual safety net programs to ensure that design features (such as eligibility criteria) do not discriminate against poor women such as literacy requirement.

* Revisit the level of income transfer amounts to take into consideration the needs of different types of poor households. For example, many cash transfer programs provide little additional assistance for children, which may go counter to the reality of high out-of-pocket expenditures associated with children's education and health care needs (e.g., school uniforms and vaccinations). Also, income transfer programs need to take into account the potentially unique needs of FHHs, given that these households contain one, rather than two parents, which is the norm among MHHs. As an example, programs need to recognize that children in FHHs are more likely to drop out, because of those households' increased need to utilize child labor in order to survive, and design poverty programs accordingly.

* Anticipate how poverty patterns are likely to change and design programs which can address these changes as they occur. For instance, given existing poverty trends, with FHHs suffering greater poverty rates in urban areas, and given the likelihood that urbanization in Egypt will continue policies need to anticipate how increasing urbanization is likely to increase women's vulnerability and design poverty programs accordingly.

* Institute a monitoring and evaluation system to assess the success of safety net programs. More and better data are clearly needed, in order not only to assess the success of various programs, but also to determine how resources are allocated with in households.

2.4.2 Recommendations

* Addressing Drop-out Rates. No comprehensive educational policy exists in Egypt that addresses the continued problem of drop-outs. The MOE "one-classroom" project, instituted in 1993, though is one program that seeks to rectify the problem, after it has already occurred. Other programs need to be developed, that reach children before they have dropped out.

* Developing cash or in-kind transfer programs targeted towards poor households with children (and especially for girls) based on observable criteria, such as girls' age, attendance in schools, and class achievement. Those transfers could include vouchers, subsidies (cash or in-kind), child allowances, and fee waivers for basic services;

* More attention to provide the poor children with early child care education. Evidence that interventions in early childhood particularly benefit poor and disadvantaged children and families is mounting. Early interventions not only have the greatest benefit for children who are from disadvantaged families, but also yield higher returns as a preventive measure early in life, compared with remedial services later in life.

* School meals can be an important means in raising poor children access to education. This can be explained in terms of two important points: School feeding programs can constitute an income transfer to offset student costs of attending schools, and improved nutrition and elimination of hunger can raise the child ability to benefit from instruction. Evidence shows that many poor children go to school hungry, unnourished or suffer from malnutrition. There is evidence that malnutrition is more prevalent among girls than boys. Thus, school meals can be an incentive for schooling for those children and their families.

* Reduce the opportunity cost of girls' schooling. This could be done through providing flexible school hours through non formal and formal education, adjusting the school calendar and schedule to avoid peak periods of labor demand (during the day and/or year), thus lowering the opportunity cost of education, thus, drawing children especially girls to education.

* Reduce the practice of early marriage. Enforcement of the existing laws is one step that can be taken in this regard. Mass media and interpersonal communication campaigns using a Communication for Behavior Change (CBC) approach, particularly in Upper Egypt and in rural areas, can also help increase awareness about the negative aspects of early marriage and ultimately change the behavior of parents.

* Increase contraceptive use with a focus on rural areas and Upper Egypt. Building on the success of the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaigns of the national Family Planning program to increase demand for family planning services can be done by mass media and interpersonal communication programs, again with a focus on rural areas and Upper Egypt. The program needs to embrace the social and cultural values of the targeted communities in order to change their behavior in favor of smaller and healthier families. Special attention needs to be given to early child bearing and child spacing. This campaign can also be reinforced by mobilizing the political, community and religious leaders to highlight the social and economic implications of population growth.

* Satisfy the unmet need for family planning. The accessibility of quality family planning services in public facilities must be assured, by including family planning services in the health facilities owned by the Health Insurance Organization and by training private providers including pharmacists. Other measures could include expanding the range of contraceptive methods available, to respond to different family planning needs, and strengthening the contraceptive storage and distribution system, to ensure availability of contraceptives in health facilities, particularly in rural and remote areas.

* Further reduce maternal mortality. One strategy could include expanding the successful Essential Obstetrics Care (EOC) program, which was piloted in Upper Egypt. Nationwide coverage is needed and institutions other than the MOH could initiate such programs as well. Other measures include:

a) improving the clinical skills of service providers in managing EOC;

b) conducting communications campaigns to increase the awareness of pregnant women and their relatives to alarming signs which require medical care;

c) strengthening blood banks and ensuring the availability and safety of the blood supply and its derivatives;

d) strengthening the national Emergency Medical Care program in order to ensure availability of ambulances to transport pregnant women in critical condition; and

e) establishing a surveillance system to monitor the pattern of maternal mortality.

* Reduce the Practice of Female Genital Mutilation. Evidence suggests that laws alone will not eradicate this practice. Enforcement of laws thus must be accompanied by a mass media campaign to increase awareness about the negative physiological and psychological aspects of FGM, in order to change the behavior of parents. At the same time there is a need to mobilize community and religious leaders to emphasize that this practice is a social tradition rather than a mandated religious requirement.

* More attention should be given to health care programs that focus on older women; their physical and physiological needs.

* Preventive and promotional health care services could be made available during afternoon hours to give women a chance to attend to their household responsibilities.

* Providing nutrition in basic education classes. This would be a major step towards achieving several related objectives including: improving health conditions and school performance.

(6) There is no detail on actual involvement of women in this process but there are visible achievements

Table: 2.1 Distribution of Working Individuals (15-64) according to
Work Status, Gender, Region

Egypt

                             Male                Female

                           Hundreds      %      Hundreds      %

Paid Work                   96989     62.20%     19062     50.85%
Employer                    27029     17.33%      1018      2.72%
Self Employed               18617     11.94%      5211     13.90%
Family worker (unpaid)      13294      8.53%     11805     31.49%
Total                       155928      100      37490       100
Urban

                             Male                Female

                           Hundreds      %      Hundreds      %

Paid Work                   46296     70.26%     12565     88.67%
Employer                     7984     12.12%      267       1.88%
Self -Employed               9533     14.47%      447       3.15%
Family workers (unpaid)      2081      3.16%      892       6.29%
Total                       65894       100      14171     100.00%
Rural
                             Male                Female

                           Hundreds      %      Hundreds      %

Paid Work                   50693     56.30%      6496     27.86%
Employer                    19044     21.15%      1145      4.91%
Self-Employed                9083     10.09%      4763     20.43%
Family workers (unpaid)     11213     12.45%     10914     46.81%
Total                       90033     100.00%    23318       100

                           Hundreds     %

Paid Work                   116051     60.0%
Employer                    28047      14.5%
Self Employed               23828      12.3%
Family worker (unpaid)      25099      3.7%
Total                       193418    100.00
Urban

                           Hundreds     %

Paid Work                   58861      73.5%
Employer                     8251      10.3%
Self -Employed               9980      12.5%
Family workers (unpaid)      2973      3.7%
Total                       80065      100.0
Rural

                           Hundreds     %

Paid Work                   57189      50.5%
Employer                    20189      17.8%
Self-Employed               13846      12.2%
Family workers (unpaid)     22127      19.5%
Total                       113351     100.0

Source: CAPMAS (2006) Labour Force Sample Survey 2005

Table 2.2 Male- Female Gap by Education Level (2003/04)

Education Level                       Male- Female Gap (2003/04)

Primary enrolment                     95.9
Preparatory enrolment                 92.2
Secondary enrolment                   99.3
Tertiary enrolment & post graduate    83.8 (2002/03)

Source: Egypt Human Development Report 2005

Table 2.3 Male- Female Gap by Education Level & Region (2003/04)

Education Level          Urban Govs    Lower Egypt

Primary enrolment        101.5         101.1
Preparatory enrolment    96.4          94.7
Secondary enrolment      110.9         107.0

Education Level          Upper Egypt   Frontier
                                       Govs

Primary enrolment        90.7          59.3
Preparatory enrolment    87.9          78.9
Secondary enrolment      84.9          86.1

Source: Egypt Human Development Report 2005

Table 2.4 Health Indicators by Region (2003/04)

Indicator                 Urban   Lower   Upper   Frontier   Egypt
                          Govs    Egypt   Egypt   Govs

Pregnant women with       85.6    76.7    58.5    --         70.5
prenatal Care

Births attended by        73.8    65.7    73.4    46.0       67.6
health personnel (%)

Maternal mortality        73.4    76.0    56.7    80.5       71.7
rate (Per 100,000 live
births

Source: Egypt Human Development Report 2005

Table 2.5 Total investments allocated in the national plan for women
empowerment

Sector                             Total investments allocated in the
                                     national , plan (L.E. Million)

Health                                           322.1

Education                                        313.1

Poverty eradication & economic                   120.6
empowerment

Environment                                       102

social care                                       63.7

Tourism                                            6

F- Information Technology                         5.8

Culture& Awareness                                2.6

Source: Socio-economic development plan (2007/2008-2011/2012)

The following are among the major projects adopted in the national
plan:

Education            [??] Establishing training centers for female
                          teachers.
                     [??] Building Secondary, industrial and
                          agricultural schools as well as one class
                          schools.
                     [??] Modernizing industrial schools.

Health               [??] Establishing moving clinics for reproductive
                          health care as well as for addiction
                          treatment
                     [??] Establishing departments for treating non
                          working women in the health insurance
                          hospitals.
                     [??] Women Health centers.
                     [??] Providing the necessary equipments to
                          discover diseases such as breast cancer.

Social care          [??] Women clubs and aged care houses
                     [??] Building nurseries and care houses for the
                          mentally handicapped
                     [??] Building comprehensive markets to serve the
                          female headed households.

Human Development &  [??] Training centers in different specializations
employment                for women
                     [??] Training centers for developing rural women
                     [??] Training women to start small business
                     [??] Providing small loans to poor women to start
                          small business
                     [??] Broadening and enlarging the productive
                          families unit

Environment          [??] Providing necessary equipments to get rid of
                          the dangerous garbage
                     [??] Building factories to recycle solid and
                          agricultural garbage
                     [??] Building manufacturing units using the
                          environmental resources

Source: Socio-economic development plan (2007/2008 - 2011/2012)